After 22 years of design and construction, the “Heavenly Eye” radio telescope (FAST), equipped with a 500m wide caliber, was officially launched on September 26th. Meanwhile, Pingtang Radio Telescope Scenic Zone (Radio Telescope Observation Deck, and Pingtang Astronomy Science and Culture Park) started its test run on the same day. The total investment of the observation deck reached more than 50 million Yuan. Visitors can look down at the grand 500m caliber radio telescope from the deck.

What is great about this innovation of FAST is that it makes the tracing of a moving celestial body an easy task. This giant yet acute equipment has received approval from Joseph Taylor, the Nobel Physics Prize winner and discoverer of pulsar binary system, said, “I assume FAST will make many new and significant scientific achievements.”

The UFO-shaped titanium alloy glass observation tower in Pinggu District of Beijing was opened to the public during the May 1st holiday season in 2016. The mean structure of the tower is a combination of titanium alloy TC4, alloy steel, and high tensile cable. The mean observation deck is 32.8m long in the air, which is 11.4m longer than the corridor bridge of the Grand Canyon in the US. It has a floor area of 713 square meters and a usable area of 434 square meters, which make it the biggest observation deck in the world.

The first alpine canyon cable stayed glass bridge is opened to visitors! Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge is 430m long, 6m wide, and is 300m from the bottom of the canyon. The bridge is paved with transparent glass and there isn’t any pier that is made of steel or concrete. It can hold 800 visitors at most. It is the highest and longest glass bridge in the world, and it also stays on many other top lists of the world: it is the world’s first alpine canyon cable stayed glass bridge, included in the Top 11 Most Magnificent Bridges of the World as selected by CNN, the world’s first open space suspension bridge, and the world’s first large-scale bridge that is mainly supported by glass.

Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge (source - CNN)

4. The Highest, Fastest, and Biggest Sight-Seeing Elevator in the World (Location: Wulingyuan Scenic Zone of Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province)

Bailong Tianti (literally “the Hundred-Dragon Celestial Ladder”) is in Wulingyuan Scenic Zone of Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province. It is the only path that leads to the core area of Zhangjiajie --- Yuanjiajie. It is recognized as “the highest, fastest, and biggest elevator of the world” by the Guinness World Records. Together with the fish tank elevator in Germany and the archway elevator in the U.S., Bailong Tianti is also one of the Top 11 Most Creative Elevators of the World.

The elevator is like a dragon hidden in the mountains --- the only way that leads to the planet Pandora. It can reach the 335m tall peak within 88 seconds.

China's 1,070-foot-tall glass elevator

Aizhai Super Large Suspension Bridge is in Aizhai Township of Jishou City, Xiangxi Prefecture, Hunan Province. The bridge is 20 km from Jishou City, and is the key construction project of the Ji (Shou)-Cha (Tong) Highway of Hunan Province, which is one of the eight major highway projects in the country. It is a double-deck highway and a sight-seeing thoroughfare, and it features four traffic lanes. Its total length is 1073.65m and its main span is 1176m. It has made four world records.

6. The First All Steel-Tube Concrete Trussed Girder Bridge of the World --- Ganhaizi Super Large Bridge (Location: Shimian County of Ya’an, Sichuan Province)

Ganhaizi Super Large Bridge is one of the key construction projects of Yaxi Highway and Beijing-Kunming Highway. It is in Shimian County of Ya’an, Sichuan Province at an elevation of 2500m above sea level. It is 1811 metres long, 24.5 metres wide and has 36 spans. Its tallest pier is 117m. It is the first All Steel-Tube Concrete Trussed Girder Bridge in the world. And it has the longest truss girders and the highest steel tube lattices in the world. The construction of the bridge began in June, 2009 and was completed in April, 2012. It has made four world records.

The bridge is extremely impressive and astonishing not only because of its “giant roller coaster style” look but also because of the “riding in the clouds” experience it brings to people.

7. The Biggest Gene Bank in the World --- China National Gene Bank (Location: Xiasha Area of Dapeng Street, Dapeng New District, Shenzhen City)

On September 22nd, after five years of construction, the headquarters of China National Gene Bank in Shenzhen was officially put into operation. It is the fourth national gene bank of the world following the ones in U.S., Japan, and EU, and is so far the biggest one.

The headquarters of China National Gene Bank are called “Noah’s Ark.” It has an enormous collection of cell samples of animals, plants, microorganisms, and human beings. The gene data it has collected so far includes 3,000 samples and 50,000 genome mutations for the cancer database, as well as a database for birth defect, plants, birds, and crops.

China National Genebank

Cao Yu, a researcher of Shanghai National Center for Protein Science, said that China National Gene Bank will collect a tremendous amount of urgenome data, which will benefit scientists of many fields, especially medicine, pharmacology and biomedicine.